Perspective of a fresh new player

fogtripper

I have a handful of characters started, none above L25. Been in game for only a bit over a week. In that time I spent close to $100 (epic companion, epic account mount, rare companion and odds/ends)

I really started off well, enjoying the gameplay. The dailies were a good thing, I gained AD through them, I spent AD on some upgrades. I peeked at professions and started a couple but really don't understand the progression and they have gathered dust. Really enjoyed the gateway mini-game.

Now?
The things I was doing a week ago to get what AD I was accumulated seem to be gone. The hourly choice to do dungeons, skirmish or PvP have become PvP-PvP-or-PvP. I have seen bugs at this point in the game, the absolute noob game period, and how old is this game that these bugs persist? (looking at you, Cragmire chest)

I see no developer roadmap. I saw a sweeping change (note: I don't grok professions yet so leadership was just something I heard of) to stop a large influx of AD but I also feel it in my noob wallet as well. Rather than make an adjustment to increase AD through normal gameplay it feels like that was decreased as well. I fail to see any balancing. Trust me, I see why leadership was changed, however the baby went out with the bathwater.

Someone please restore some faith that I made the right decision. A lead developer making an official post about the state of the game, the reasoning for certain changes, and the ideas for the road ahead would go a long way to restoring some of my confidence in the game. Abject silence beyond moderators is not doing the game any favors.

buzzardsbait

Faith in Cryptic?

cerberusxll

fogtripper said:

I have a handful of characters started, none above L25. Been in game for only a bit over a week. In that time I spent close to $100 (epic companion, epic account mount, rare companion and odds/ends)

I really started off well, enjoying the gameplay. The dailies were a good thing, I gained AD through them, I spent AD on some upgrades. I peeked at professions and started a couple but really don't understand the progression and they have gathered dust. Really enjoyed the gateway mini-game.

Now?
The things I was doing a week ago to get what AD I was accumulated seem to be gone. The hourly choice to do dungeons, skirmish or PvP have become PvP-PvP-or-PvP. I have seen bugs at this point in the game, the absolute noob game period, and how old is this game that these bugs persist? (looking at you, Cragmire chest)

I see no developer roadmap. I saw a sweeping change (note: I don't grok professions yet so leadership was just something I heard of) to stop a large influx of AD but I also feel it in my noob wallet as well. Rather than make an adjustment to increase AD through normal gameplay it feels like that was decreased as well. I fail to see any balancing. Trust me, I see why leadership was changed, however the baby went out with the bathwater.

Someone please restore some faith that I made the right decision. A lead developer making an official post about the state of the game, the reasoning for certain changes, and the ideas for the road ahead would go a long way to restoring some of my confidence in the game. Abject silence beyond moderators is not doing the game any favors.

I don't want to come across as harsh and uncaring or anything, because I'm not.

however, you made the wrong decision to invest anything more than your time into this HAMSTER heap of a game. I've only ever invested my time, and looking at the way the game is now, I'm disappointed to have done that

santralafax

I'd like to say something positive here, but the game has been in a downward spiral since April, when Mod 6 was released. Every once in a while something will be done to make things better. But it is always followed in a week or two with some new major rule change.

I can only describe Neverwinter as unstable. Many veteran players are bailing out. Myself, I've only been playing for a year, and April was definitely where things started breaking down. Some will say it's ben on a slow slide since Mod 4, although I highly enjoyed it when I started in Mod 5.

dandare

Well if You 'keep spending' then you might come by in the game, continue to play and in some time even hope for best in game things for least one of your characters.

If You do not keep spending however: you won't make it. You simply mathematically won't make it. You'll of course finish leveling content (which is fun, especially oldest maps have good scenario and feel to them) but in the end game you'll keep repeating grind on low tier runs in hope to progress to higher tier only once they already will be low tier once more since new things will appear.

Sadly.

Since I really love the game. Over the over 2 years of my play I invited into it well over 30 people. Some stayed only for a while, many stayed for a much longer while. Since the game was good! Now all I knew just quit >_>

Only tear-dry I have is that my new guild seem to not think of quitting en-masse. But I guess some might change the approach with time seeing long run results and majority is 'not pleased' already. Nonetheless I'm in a VERY GOOD guild considering they did not tremble much over what happened (they ARE tough)

fogtripper

Finally saw the original lead dev post about AD changes. Thought I would cross-post my reply in this thread as well...

goatshark said:

Daily Quests & Hourly Events
Previously, there were separate daily quests that, if you remembered to take them, would reward bonus AD for completing Dungeons, Skirmishes, PvP, and Foundry. Unfortunately, based on our data, far too many people either didn’t know they needed to take these quests, didn't want to go through the effort, or they simply forgot. This lead to Dungeons, Skirmishes, and PvP not rewarding as much AD as was expected in our model. On top of that, though we were expecting players to use the Foundry daily to get AD, we found the vast majority weren't doing so at all.

Speaking as a new player, it took me little to no time to find out and jump on dailies. Were I not someone who lurks the forum, I would have had no clue about your change, beyond yanking dailies away. How are players to know about this if they do not visit the forum and read patch notes? Dailies are quests, the "!" used to show up on the minimap IIRC. How is this change displayed/communicated in-game?

goatshark said:

Let’s look at some actual numbers:

Playing Dungeons
Old: If you picked up the daily quest, you got 3,000 AD for one dungeon. If you had your chest key, you got an additional 3,000 AD.
New: 1. Automatically get 3,000 AD for each of the first two dungeons.

This change right here, you are now requiring people who actually put thought into remembering things to now run the content twice for the very same reward because of the lowest common denominator players who cannot be bothered with using their memories. Why not just make the first dungeon worth 6k AD as it was before?

So "actual numbers" = twice the time & effort for the same reward. Just because others "didn’t know they needed to take these quests, didn't want to go through the effort, or they simply forgot" to click on an NPC and accept a key?

tripsofthrymr

I hope you stick around. The game, at it's best, is a lot of fun. You caught it literally at it's worst (in terms of both content and player morale).

Personally I'm not spending any real money again until they restore my confidence, not to "punish" them, but because sales is the one metric that will drive real change.

If I may suggest, consider joining NW_Legit_Community. That is a custom channel filled with helpful players that do not care how well geared you are. You can request to join at http://nwlegitcommunity.shivtr.com/ All applications are accepted, as long as you agree to the terms (essentially, to play fairly and not cheat).

soltasword

Sadly, I am with a lot of others. You spent money at a time you shouldn't have. The game can be fun but getting and upgrading your gear now will take vastly more time ( like years ) or a few thousand dollars if you just happen to have that laying around. At this point in time, there isn't much positive to say about Cryptic. They care about your wallet but not about the game and certainly not about you, the player. Right now, if you still want to play, play for free.

rollingonit

tripsofthrymr said:

I hope you stick around. The game, at it's best, is a lot of fun. You caught it literally at it's worst (in terms of both content and player morale).

Personally I'm not spending any real money again until they restore my confidence, not to "punish" them, but because sales is the one metric that will drive real change.

My opinion and advice as well.

torontodave

there's no earthly way of knowing
which direction we are going
there's no knowing where we're rowing
or which way the river's flowing
is it raining? is it snowing?
is a hurricane-a-blowing?
not a speck of light is showing..
so the danger must be growing
are the fires of hell a glowing?
is the gristly reaper mowing?
yes, the danger must be growing
cause the rowers keep on rowing
and they're certainly not showing
any signs that they are slowing!

https://youtu.be/SfdlTWMpTzg

icyclass

Don't Panic


Really AD is not a big deal for level 25 characters. Take your time playing through the story line and leveling your characters. By the time you finish Elemental Evil and get to level 70 some of this chaos will hopefully have been sorted out and you'll be in a better position to evaluate things.

strous1

fogtripper said:

I have a handful of characters started, none above L25. Been in game for only a bit over a week. In that time I spent close to $100 (epic companion, epic account mount, rare companion and odds/ends)

I really started off well, enjoying the gameplay. The dailies were a good thing, I gained AD through them, I spent AD on some upgrades. I peeked at professions and started a couple but really don't understand the progression and they have gathered dust. Really enjoyed the gateway mini-game.

Now?
The things I was doing a week ago to get what AD I was accumulated seem to be gone. The hourly choice to do dungeons, skirmish or PvP have become PvP-PvP-or-PvP. I have seen bugs at this point in the game, the absolute noob game period, and how old is this game that these bugs persist? (looking at you, Cragmire chest)

I see no developer roadmap. I saw a sweeping change (note: I don't grok professions yet so leadership was just something I heard of) to stop a large influx of AD but I also feel it in my noob wallet as well. Rather than make an adjustment to increase AD through normal gameplay it feels like that was decreased as well. I fail to see any balancing. Trust me, I see why leadership was changed, however the baby went out with the bathwater.

Someone please restore some faith that I made the right decision. A lead developer making an official post about the state of the game, the reasoning for certain changes, and the ideas for the road ahead would go a long way to restoring some of my confidence in the game. Abject silence beyond moderators is not doing the game any favors.

Wont see any of what you ask for!

hustin1

My advice: take your time leveling to 60. Smell the roses, enjoy every last bit of the storyline, explore every nook and cranny of each zone. In my opinion, the journey from 1-60 is still the most engaging part of the game. It's why I recently started my eighth character, another HR (who is destined to be a Trapper unlike my Archer main). It's only a shame that the dungeons aren't there anymore for you to enjoy. Some of them were quite ingenious and interesting (before some soulless i-d-i-o-t decided to remove the secret areas from three of them).

kitkathd

fogtripper said:

I have a handful of characters started, none above L25. Been in game for only a bit over a week. In that time I spent close to $100 (epic companion, epic account mount, rare companion and odds/ends)

I really started off well, enjoying the gameplay. The dailies were a good thing, I gained AD through them, I spent AD on some upgrades. I peeked at professions and started a couple but really don't understand the progression and they have gathered dust. Really enjoyed the gateway mini-game.

Now?
The things I was doing a week ago to get what AD I was accumulated seem to be gone. The hourly choice to do dungeons, skirmish or PvP have become PvP-PvP-or-PvP. I have seen bugs at this point in the game, the absolute noob game period, and how old is this game that these bugs persist? (looking at you, Cragmire chest)

I see no developer roadmap. I saw a sweeping change (note: I don't grok professions yet so leadership was just something I heard of) to stop a large influx of AD but I also feel it in my noob wallet as well. Rather than make an adjustment to increase AD through normal gameplay it feels like that was decreased as well. I fail to see any balancing. Trust me, I see why leadership was changed, however the baby went out with the bathwater.

Someone please restore some faith that I made the right decision. A lead developer making an official post about the state of the game, the reasoning for certain changes, and the ideas for the road ahead would go a long way to restoring some of my confidence in the game. Abject silence beyond moderators is not doing the game any favors.

Find a good guild in your timezone. It is guarenteed that you will waste a good portion of your time finding said guild. This game has ALOT of free to play negatives fromthe community. There will be freeloader guilds, pvp guilds, and personal bank space guilds that will sucker you into thinking their guild is for you. The only suggestion I have for you is to play very socially and look for people who are talkative ingame and engaging and try to join their guild, asking for people to invite you in PE is a recipe for disaster because a good portion of the games idiots sitin PE zonechat all day doing nothing. The people you want to play with won't even be near PE now that rhix doesn't need to be interacted with. Get VIP asap either by saving up AD and exchanging for zen or with RL money it really makes you back the money you spend and thensome once you are 70. Don't let the forumites scare you a good portion of the negativity in the forums are just butthurt people who have no other plan for the game other than to cheese it up with offline professions. The changes fit perfectly for an actual player and you will do just fine, better than fine cause you set yourself up with some awesome stuff to start with.

eolee

http://prntscr.com/8hbxss

So basically, lets analyse this advertisement.
-Completely free to play: You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.


True, you dont have to pay to adventure, but if you want to last in the level cap adventure, you have to pay now.

-Engaging Action Combat

You can forget about tab-targeting or auto-attacking your enemies to death. Neverwinter provides an amazing combat experience where every action requires planning, feels visceral, and looks spectacular.

True, maybe one of the last reasons people are still playing this game. But what's an amazing combat experience when all your friends left the game?

D&D Experience

Whether you come from the tabletop game or the novels, Neverwinter has recreated many iconic classes, locations, and encounters that you might recognize. You might choose to adventure as a hearty Guardian Fighter, deceive foes as a Trickster Rogue, follow the righteous path as a Devoted Cleric, or more! On your journey through Neverwinter and the surrounding lands, you will face Kobolds, Beholders, Mimics, and other nasty creatures of the D&D universe

Nobody will disagree that its Dragons&Dragons experience now, a game master would be put on pyre for offering so little D&D content.

Infinite Content

Neverwinter comes with the Foundry, a dynamic toolset that provides you the game assets and a sandbox environment to create your own adventures. When your creation is complete, you can hook it up directly into the existing world for everyone in the community to play!


Yup... A wonderful toolset that got put in toilets and forever got lost in sewers with the Kobolds. Not rewarding for the author, not rewarding for the player anymore.

obsidiancran3

I've been playing for 2 years on and off.

I have 5 level 70's and 3 characters I'm still progressing (slowly) from 60-70.

My guild just unlocked the ability to build the first Boon Structure in our Stronghold.

The changes to Leadership were not the ideal solution for me, and I admit the change to the "event" system beside the mini-map is definitely confusing.

Those 4 things said, I remain enthusiastic about the game and while I'm not inclined to spend money on it at the moment I am quite happy to keep playing and enjoy the developments in the game and of my characters as we head towards the Underdark expansion.

fogtripper

The removal of dungeon content sounds pretty bad. So there was leveling content that was simply removed?

mynaam

icyclass said:

Don't Panic


Really AD is not a big deal for level 25 characters. Take your time playing through the story line and leveling your characters. By the time you finish Elemental Evil and get to level 70 some of this chaos will hopefully have been sorted out and you'll be in a better position to evaluate things.

I would suggest that too, but in my honest opinion there is no way that they will have the current Chaos sorted in 2 weeks time(longest time it has taken me to get a character from 0 to 70).

I still remember the good old days when IWD just launched, mod 2 and mod 1. So I still have hope(dwindling yes, but hope) that crypric will turn this around as this is a great game. Just a few people that have never played or seen the game is making decisions about this game and messing it up for their clients.In my opinion it is not a good idea to intentially upset the vast majority of your client base.

fogtripper

mynaam said:

I would suggest that too, but in my honest opinion there is no way that they will have the current Chaos sorted in 2 weeks time(longest time it has taken me to get a character from 0 to 70).

Hah, I will most likely be in the 30s by next week. Not in a terrible hurry.

Could someone expand on (without flaming) what happened with the dungeon content?

eolee

they got removed to be reworked according to same level difficulty as those we have now.
But thats two mods now.

fogtripper

How many are we talking?

mynaam

fogtripper said:

mynaam said:

I would suggest that too, but in my honest opinion there is no way that they will have the current Chaos sorted in 2 weeks time(longest time it has taken me to get a character from 0 to 70).

Hah, I will most likely be in the 30s by next week. Not in a terrible hurry.

Could someone expand on (without flaming) what happened with the dungeon content?

We used to have a large variety of dungeons to play but then the decision was made to make them more difficult and for some reason they decided to only upgrade a very small amount and just remove the rest. The ones that remain(At epic level) need the normal player to employ cheats to be able to beat the boss. As you get one shot left right and center.

If my post came as a flame I apologize I Love this game and Hope it has a bright future. Proof of that is that I regularly start a new character and run it through the levels just to keep me interested. I just get reminded by the words from Star wars 'You are going down a road I cannot follow'. I hope there is a fork somewhere in the road, but for now I will continue to grind and I regularly recomend players to join(warning them about the bad as well). It seems more acceptable if you are warned that there is trouble, than suddenly experiencing it as we the old gaurd had to do .


Oh I forgot. One Positive is they added a new Skirmish this week the first new skirmish or dungeon for like 3 modules. It is really fun, but remember to play it before you reach lvl 70 as it is not available for lvl 70 players.

hustin1

fogtripper said:

How many are we talking?

Off the top of my head:

Cloak Tower -- removed
Cragmire Crypts -- present but sliced up (LOTS of cool side areas plus miniboss removed)
Throne of Idris -- removed
Gray Wolf Den -- present (sliced up? haven't tried it since mod 6)
Pirate King's Lair -- removed
Frozen Heart -- removed
Spellplague Caverns -- removed
Temple of The Spider -- present but WAY cool side area removed, other parts shortened
Caverns of Karrundax -- removed
Dread Vault -- removed

Castle Never -- removed

Fardelver's Crypt -- removed (along with all of PvE Gauntlgrym)
Dwarf King's Lair -- removed (along with all of PvE Gauntlgrym)

Losing Gauntlgrym also makes it impossible for PvE players to earn glory (by turning in elemental fire/elemental earth, or turning in Grym Coins earned from the two dungeons). I'm glad I ground Fardelver prior to mod 6 so I could get the Jagged Dancing Blade when I could).

EDIT: Why on Earth is "h-a-c-k-e-d" censored? Fine. "sliced" is a suitable synonym.

EDIT: Thanks! I knew I was forgetting something.

fogtripper

hustin1 said:

fogtripper said:

How many are we talking?

Off the top of my head:

Cloak Tower -- removed
Cragmire Crypts -- present but hacked up (LOTS of cool side areas plus miniboss removed)
Throne of Idris -- removed
Gray Wolf Den -- present (hacked up? haven't tried it since mod 6)
Pirate King's Lair -- removed
Frozen Heart -- removed
Spellplague Caverns -- removed
Temple of The Spider -- present but WAY cool side area removed, other parts shortened
Caverns of Karrundax -- removed
Dread Vault -- removed

Fardelver's Crypt -- removed (along with all of PvE Gauntlgrym)
Dwarf King's Lair -- removed (along with all of PvE Gauntlgrym)

oy

tomiotar

If you are sarting its better to just start somewhere else, this game only have people that has invested too much money, time or both but as a game is just pathetic and the future seem even worse

hustin1

It's sad. I would argue that my Foundry is far more entertaining than the remaining dungeons. If only we could create real bosses...

eolee

Omg you forgot the best dungeon ever

CASTLE NEVER


Im adding that i would live with just CN added back...even if only one added. Err maybe with Dread Vault.

obsidiancran3

You are also incorrect wrt Gauntlgrym; as you had to do the PvP to access Fardelver etc nothing has changed, you still do GG PvP and you still get Grym Coins that you can use to buy Glory from the merchant in Trade of Blades.
Of course the 2 dungeons were removed regardless.

hustin1

obsidiancran3 said:

You are also incorrect wrt Gauntlgrym; as you had to do the PvP to access Fardelver etc nothing has changed, you still do GG PvP and you still get Grym Coins that you can use to buy Glory from the merchant in Trade of Blades.
Of course the 2 dungeons were removed regardless.

As long as someone in my faction (Delzoun) was doing PvP and they won, I was free to kill fire elementals until the dungeons opened. My HR has a jagged dancing blade earned entirely by turning in elemental fire and grym coins from Fardelver. She has never raised a hand against another player.

mattsacre

Sorry bud, you wasted $100. If it makes you feel the least bit better, many of us got ripped off as well, but for you, you are "only" out $100, not the much more $ we are out or the total time sink we got robbed.

Not trying to scare you off, but were I you, I'd bail now before chasing good $ and time with more bad. We die-hards only stick around hoping and praying that cryptic pulls their collective heads out of their collective rectums and makes this game better again by doing so.

vordayn

I've played a few MMOs in my time, and NWO is the only one where content is removed after a new expansion: majority of dungeons, the PvE aspect of Gauntlgrym, Neverember dailies and now Rhix dailies.

You bring up a valid point fogtripper - picking up dailies was simple; now players have to remember to do two of each dungeon/skirmish/PvP (and then remember if they have done two or not!). The way that Cryptic and its Lead Developer expect everyone to read it on the forums is beyond me. I could see how a new player who doesn't check the forums would feel, seeing things that were worthwhile doing (dailies) disappearing like that.

Their official "reasoning" is patronising and a poor excuse to remove a legitimate way to gain AD in this game. It's a shame they even devoted programming time to remove dailies when there are so many other areas to target besides something which was not broken in the first place.